Abstract

The Big Book of Buttons (Elizabeth Hughes and Marion Lester, Second printing: 1991, Plate 152, #4). The depth of this button makes the rubbed high points of its scene stand out in lovely fashion from the dark background on the Joyce's Jems exemplar, while the Wiedeman is much brighter throughout. A real prize!

Abstract

The Big Book of Buttons (Elizabeth Hughes and Marion Lester, Second printing: 1991, Plate 152, #4). The depth of this button makes the rubbed high points of its scene stand out in lovely fashion from the dark background on the Joyce's Jems exemplar, while the Wiedeman is much brighter throughout. A real prize!

Abstract

BBB Plate 154 # 2. For the editors there the identification of the fable is not certain. I am not sure that the brass on my button is tinted, as theirs is. Steel back and wire shank. This is a dramatic button, as the crane has a creature in his mouth, with lush vegetation in the background.

Abstract

I can find this button in neither BBB nor Nelson and Sweat "Fables on Buttons" in The National Button Bulletin (Oct., '86). The button pictures a crane holding a creature aloft in its beak. The creature seems to me to be a fish. In the foreground are reeds and plants. The crane and vegetation are in brass against a black background formed by a hollowed out crater. The rim is serrated. There is a welded loop on the back.

Abstract This is perhaps the simplest of the buttons I have found. Until the Goldbarg offer, I did not know that this scene found its way onto a button. Almost the full top half of the button's circle is simple darkness. In addition to the dog and the lunch, there is only the raised ground beneath the animal. The button seems to have been constructed of the scene proper and a standard brass backing with a self-shank. BBB Plate 154 #29. In the Larner exemplar, this scene is, as BBB describes, "all...

Abstract This is perhaps the simplest of the buttons I have found. Until the Goldbarg offer, I did not know that this scene found its way onto a button. Almost the full top half of the button's circle is simple darkness. In addition to the dog and the lunch, there is only the raised ground beneath the animal. The button seems to have been constructed of the scene proper and a standard brass backing with a self-shank. BBB Plate 154 #29. In the Larner exemplar, this scene is, as BBB describes, "all...

Abstract Though this theme of the eagle and stag is listed as a standard button motif, I have no idea what the fable is that is depicted! This button is a bright, very shiny brass piece folded over a different back with yet a third independent piece forming the shank. Help?! BBB shows a similar motif in an apparently smaller button (Plate 154 #27), and for #5 on Plate 153 describes the following story from Pilpay. A stag led his family on the search for food and water. As the land became unfamiliar,...

Abstract

See my other button showing this fable for the story. This is a darker button with a stag running left in the foreground and an eagle moving right above. Flora fill in the open spaces around the circumference, with another rim added around the scene. Stamped and tinted brass, with a steel back and wire shank.

Abstract

Though the image seems very famliar, I cannot place the button in BBB. The scene is basically the same as that on my two Monleón buttons. The button itself is of one-piece construction, with a metal eyelet welded onto the back.

Abstract

The pattern is the same as that on the Wiedeman button of similar proportions, but the button comes from a different mold; that is, two artists worked from the same visual pattern to make two different metal casts. The central circle containing the scene is slightly loose and off-center. Two-piece construction, with a metal eyelet welded onto the back. These studs do not have the luster of the Monleón buttons.

Abstract One image is silver in color, the other bronze. Ms. Monleón had lots of animal figurines, and so I came up with a challenge that she must have some fable figurines. She countered that she had buttons of FG but may not be able to find them. Why? She had hid them because she did not want to sell them! After fifteen minutes of searching she found them! This was the start of my fable button collecting! BBB Plate 152 #12 shows the same sort of facetted steels; the design, though distinct, comes...

Abstract

Identical in design with the two 5/8" FC buttons. BBB Plate 154 #6. Let me quote from there: "Stamped brass, cut out and backed by a painted metal liner, with a narrow, white metal underliner showing under the rim; brass back with self shank."

Abstract

This button, by contrast with the Monleón exemplars, puts the fox on the lower right and the crow in the upper left. Tree branches shape the scene--and even make it hard to read on this small button! Closest in design to the larger button pictured in BBB on Plate 154 as #6. Like it, this button has a brass back and a self-shank.

Abstract

This button, by contrast with the Monleón exemplars, puts the fox on the lower right and the crow in the upper left. Tree branches shape the scene--and even make it hard to read on this small button! Closest in design to the larger button pictured in BBB on Plate 154 as #6. Like it, this button has a brass back and a self-shank.

Abstract

This is the largest button I have found. The two figures are surrounded by reeds, branches, and at least one blossom. There is a thick floral border around the perimeter. Three-piece construction. I have no notion what scene may be portrayed.

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The same scene as in the 1.5" Joyce's Jems large button. Apparently they were meant to be used together. The buttons seem to have a circle of metal shaped around the hook-bearing metallic or celluloid base.

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The same scene as in the 1.5" Joyce's Jems large button. Apparently they were meant to be used together. The buttons seem to have a circle of metal shaped around the hook-bearing metallic or celluloid base.

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Basically the same motif as the large 1.5" Larner FS button, but done in metal. Ms Bon Forte offered a dozen, but I could afford only two at this time. This particular button, aptly named "Tit for Tat" by Marcia, seems not to be listed in BBB.

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This exquisite little match to the larger button is a three-piece button at least. It is hard to believe that wood could have been carved or molded so intricately for a button! As so often happens on Ebay, this button came with three others that do not fit into my collection.

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A really striking button! As Robin noted, there is a small sliver missing at high noon. The motif is well known to The Big Book of Buttons (Elizabeth Hughes and Marion Lester, Second printing: 1991, Plate 152, #5) but not in this unusual material. A wonderful acquisition!

Abstract

This button again takes a different artistic conception of the theme. It can be hard to read except up very close, partially because of its smaller size. BBB Plate 154 #19, which says of it "The well defined brass design is cut out and mounted over a background of grey pearl; tinned steel back and brass wire shank" (378). The BBB illustration may actually show the button upside-down, since it ends up with the grapes below the fox!

Abstract

This button was clearly meant to be a match to the larger Larner/Beck button. I cannot pick up any tint. Three-piece construction.

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This button takes a different artistic conception of the theme. BBB Plate 153, #8. The button is unusual among those I have not only for the applied grapes but also because it is of one piece (with no added back or shank) except for the grapes.

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Identical with the Goldbarg button of the same dimensions, except that this one shows only the bright brass color. See my comments there. Like that, this has a patterned design on a separate metallic back with a self shank. Might this be an exemplar of the modern reproduction?

Abstract

A tree with a high picket fence replaces the grasses on the left, there is nothing on the ground in the foreground, there is less of the scene pictured on the right of the fox, and the fox has his left paw on the first step of a simple ladder leading toward the grapes. BBB Plate 154, #20, which says that the button was reproduced in the 1950's.